Male/Female Differences In Perceptions Of Sexual Harassment

One of your male co-workers has a revealing photograph of a female on
his desk at work. You ask him to remove the picture because it makes you feel
uncomfortable. He does not remove the picture. Do you think this is a form of
sexual harassment? According to Bertha Brooks, a speaker on the subject of
sexual harassment, this scenario exhibits a form of sexual harassment. For many
people sexual harassment implies different behaviors; there are people who
believe this scenario would be far from any type of harassment.
This study investigates the different perceptions of how men and women
define sexual harassment. It may be a simple look, slight touch, or a verbal
comment. Whatever ...

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than men conclude that these forms of sexual harassment are serious
and offending.
Is there a difference between what men perceive as sexual harassment and
what women consider sexual harassment? The purpose of this study is to
determine if in fact there is a difference. According to earlier research, men
and women would perceive and define sexual harassment differently (Ellison v.
Brady, 1989). "The findings that women define sexual harassment more broadly
and inclusive than men is reliable" (Ellison v. Brady). "A significant
difference between the sexes shows up both in surveys of working people and in
scenario studies; fifty-nine percent of men rated sexual touching as sexual
harassment whereas eighty-four percent of women" (Dunwoody-Miller and Gutek,
1985).
This study was conducted on a small northeast public college campus by
four experimental psychology students. Before the actual research was done,
twenty males and twenty females were pre-tested to see if the ...

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